Dying for work; a weak OSHA and declining unions mean danger on the job
The main reasons for the failures of industrial safety enforcement are a weak and underfunded Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and weakened trade unions too busy fighting for their lives to address workplace safety. OSHA is both underfunded and understaffed. Much of the agency's potential for enforcement was removed during the Reagan and Bush administrations in the interest of deregulation. Representative William Ford hopes to reintroduce the Comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Reform Act, which would give enforcers more weapons, after President Clinton takes office.
Publication Name: ABA Journal
Are OSHA penalties effective?
The stock market responds in a limited fashion to the imposition of fines and sanctions on a company by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Companies hit with OSHA sanctions saw their stocks dip, on average, by 0.46% over the day before, day of, and day following the announcement of sanctions. The presence of a fine tended to marginally increase the size of the decline, but the fine's size proved immaterial. Other measures might help to make OSHA penalties more effective.
Publication Name: Business and Society Review
Off the rails: danger signals for Automatic Train Protection
The introduction of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) is in doubt because the cost-benefit analysis of introducing this system, which can supervise drivers, indicates that the costs are too high. British Rails currently has a Automatic Warning System, which can be over-ridden by the drivers. Soon after the Clapham Common accident in 1988, the government and British Rails spoke of introducing ATP. However, now the focus is on finding cheaper alternatives to ATP.
Publication Name: Health and Safety Bulletin
- Abstracts: Planning for disaster; computer systems can be kept functioning in the wake of a calamity. Computer modeling is applied; assessing harm
- Abstracts: Planning for disability helps preserve a client's assets. Hurdles and incentives at Vertex
- Abstracts: Prior statements of a witness: a nettlesome corner of the hearsay thicket. Resolving the conflict of the unsworn witness: a framework for disqualifying house counsel under the advocate-witness rule
- Abstracts: Contingent beneficiaries and Crummey powers: the battle lines are drawn. Contingent workforce does not threaten permanent jobs
- Abstracts: Predatory pricing with a 12% market share: recoupment via tacit collusion in the cigarette oligopoly. Lawyers share the blame for the savings and loan scandal